“My thoughts?”
Mack couldn’t help himself as he chuckled and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Hestaby and I both agree that setting up a meet ’n swap in the Matrix doesn’t sound like something either of those idiots came up with on their own. The fact they’ll be sending the address of the host in question minutes before the meet is even more suspicious.” He glanced at the vid before continuing. “So my opinion is the dwarf’s behind this somehow.”
“Powell?”
“Yeah. Blackwater and Clockwork disappeared minutes after Kazuma took down that host. Following PCC police reports after we left, they did find a stolen van a block from the Risen house. But he did find this before they pulled their vanishing act.” He waved at the vid in front of him displaying the contents of his file. The information disappeared, replaced by a surveillance drone image of the Risen house. Mack moved the image with his ringed hands and zoomed in on a small area along the edge of the overpass, near where Silk parked the Hummer.
Delaney came closer. “What is that?”
“A Land Rover,” Mack said as he tried to sharpen the image further. “I’d say circa 2055, from its frame.”
Hestaby’s voice came through the speakers. “Neither of the two kidnappers have such a vehicle registered in their possession. Mack and I believe the events at the Risen house were being monitored by someone.”
Delaney sighed. “Draco Powell.”
“Yep.” Mack moved the image forward through a few frames until the camera centered on the license. “Registered to Morion Baron.”
Delaney hesitated before narrowing her eyes at Mack. “But…that’s one of the missing former owners of Contagion Games.”
“Funny that.” He moved the images around again to show heat signatures from the drone’s view. He tapped each one and a name came up beside it. Netcat, Clockwork, Blackwater, Kazuma, Silk, Slamm-0!, Mack, Preacher, Shayla, MoonShine over in the Hummer. Then he pointed to an unlabeled dot near Silk and Kazuma and zoomed in. It was in the back yard. “He was there the whole time, watching, and we never even saw him.”
“Magic?”
“Possible. He is a registered user.” He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. “I’m thinking Powell came in and gave the boys a hand out of that situation. And I’m betting he’s helping them out now.” He moved the image back over to the overpass ramp to the Land Rover. Another unnamed heat signature. “With whomever that is.”
“That’s the ork he’s got working with him. I met him once.” Delaney shivered. “I was more freaked out by him than that wolf he had.” She put her hands on her hips. “So the Land Rover is another link between Powell and Contagion, other than the pay stream.”
Mack pointed to the image. “If there is a Land Rover still out there, in use, which belonged to one of those three missing men—what happened to the rest of their assets? Did Miranda Sebastian inherit them all?”
Delaney activated her commlink and connected to Mack’s PAN. She requested outside access through the public grid, and he gave it. There she was able to connect to the PCC police host with her password and pull up several databases. She sat on the edge of the desk, not far from Hestaby’s vid.
Mack and the dragon were quiet as she entered each of the names of the missing in the database, cross-referenced with owner records, probate court and—there it was! She downloaded the information and sorted it on her own AR before she uploaded it to Mack’s PAN.
He moved it onto the main screen. “Hestaby, are you getting this?”
“I am.”
Delaney stepped forward, her instant shock at seeing the dragon’s image so close, not to mention actually talking to her! She had a silent fangirl squee before arranging the documents she found under each name. Above that she created a folder and named it Prospero.
“Prospero?” Mack made a face.
“Shakespeare, Mackenzie,” Hestaby said. “In fact, I’m seeing several character names from the play, The Tempest. Prospero was the name of the magician, Caliban the name of the demon. Ferdinand is the name of the prince. The fact that Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, has taken the name of the witch, Sycorax, Caliban’s mother, is very interesting.”
“She’s right. All the names come from The Tempest. And all three of these names still own properties across Seattle, Denver, Los Angeles, and Manhattan. Remember, originally there were four owners of Contagion—Miranda Sebastian is still alive as far as we know, and working with Ferdinand Bellex as the CFO. But according to the documents in these folders,” She moved them over. “Every one of their holdings were originally purchased under the umbrella of Prospero, Incorporated. That protected the individuals, and it makes it easier for Sebastian, and now Bellex, to utilize those properties, like the Land Rover, in a legal capacity.”
Mack moved forward and opened each of the listings. He tapped a few items, and several maps came up in rapid succession.
“What did you find, Mackenzie?” Hestaby’s voice was soft and warm. Delaney knew it was a voice projected by magic, but it still amazed her.
“Two here in Los Angeles.” He brought up a split screen with two location maps. Each of them had a highlighted box in their center. “Both are warehouses in less populated areas of Los Angeles—one in the still damaged areas since the quake. One is owned by Morion Baron, the other by Radcliff Tolen. I can send Shayla and Preacher out to do a physical touch on them, just so we don’t trip anything electronic.”
“That is a good plan, Mackenzie. And if Draco Powell is in one of them, it would seem fair to assume the physical locations of the two kidnappers and the elf would also be there. This could give us an advantage before they call for the meeting and send the location,” Hestaby said.
“That’s what I was thinking.” He rubbed his lower lip. “Delaney, you think you can pull some muscle to get access to drones in the area?”
“Probably. But couldn’t Shayla do that?”
“Yeah…but not legally. I’d like to keep GOD out of this, if at all possible. Got to protect my people.”
“I’ll see what I can do. But…” she looked between the vid of Hestaby and Mack. “What about the data? Has Mr. Tetsu even admitted to having it? Has he retrieved it? We know he set up decoy images of it all over the Matrix.”
“He hasn’t said, and frankly I’d prefer he keep that information out of play right now.” Mack gave her a worried look. “If it contains what Wagner said it does, and we confirm its existence or its whereabouts in any way, I’m betting Bellex will do anything in his power to get to it. Right now the priority is to get Netcat back safe and sound, then my people and I need to have a little talk with Blackwater.”
Mack’s smile made Delaney drop hers.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Contagion UV Host
Los Angeles
Powell strolled through the park, admiring the look and feel of downtown Denver. Why the owners considered that city the ideal place to set the game was beyond him. He could think of a hundred better places. Settings that would have drawn more players.
Ah, but then, the game had never been set up under Caliban to be popular or to make money. It was set up to bring him more technomancers, more fodder for his imaginary stairway to Heaven, or whatever he was calling it now.
He spotted Blackwater and Clockwork, their online personas almost amusing. Clockwork looked like a drone, and flew around as if testing his boundaries. Blackwater…Powell wasn’t sure he knew what the hacker’s persona was for. He looked like a Japanese ronin, complete with katana and black kimono.
Whatever.
They appeared to be staking out their spot where the exchange was supposed to take place. Of course, none of them had any intention of exchanging anything. Once they had Tetsu locked inside the dissonance, pinpointing his exact physical location would be easy, thanks to technology Caliban had borrowed from the Grid Overwatch Division.
The elf technomancer was already in place, safely locked inside the converted auto-doc in th
e warehouse. An empty rested beside hers—a place of honor for Tetsu. Whether or not he had the data with him when he arrived didn’t matter. Once they had him locked on the proper host, Powell had a little surprise for Tetsu. Something very special.
“Why are parts of the park set up like the back of Myddrin Risen’s yard? The Asian motif doesn’t fit in well with what is supposed to be a park in Denver.”
“It’s what Sycorax wanted.” Bellex’s voice surprised him. Powell had asked the question out loud, but to himself. He turned to see Contagion’s CEO standing beside him in sharp, crisp detail. “I’m waiting on one of those two chrome domes to ask me for admin access to set up a host.”
“We already have one set up.”
“Yeah…but they’re gonna want their own.”
“You do realize samurai man there is going to try and kill Tetsu.”
Bellex nodded and clasped his hands together in front of him. “I’m sure he will try. But we have our own IC set up. If he does ask—ah, and here they come.”
The ronin stalked toward Powell and Bellex with purpose as the flying disk beside him followed. “You.” Blackwater pointed at Bellex. “You’re the owner.”
“I’m the CEO.” Bellex offered his hand, and the twinkle was there on his perfect smile. “Ferdinand Bellex.”
To Powell’s surprise, Blackwater actually shook his hand. “Cole Blackwater. Is it possible to get admin access here? Clock and I want to create a host and set up some serious IC.”
“We already have a host and countermeasures set up behind the admin access.” Bellex’s voice was pitched perfectly, and his posture accommodating. Powell had to give him credit, he had the act down perfectly. “But I’m sure Mr. Powell here can give you a bit of leeway when it comes to whatever means you wish to use for your fight.”
The drone came down to eye level with Bellex. “Fight?”
“Well of course. Surely you plan on fighting, gentlemen? Mr. Blackwater has donned a persona in the fashion of an Edo period ronin, and having seen Soldat’s persona as a black-clad ninja, you either wish to impress him, or fight him.”
Blackwater took a step back. “Sir, I—”
“And you, Mr. Clockwork. A drone? The only reason I can see you would disguise yourself as one of your own creations would be to impress someone online in the act of selling the drone, or because you have a vendetta against the hacker you hope will accompany Mr. Tetsu into the host.” Bellex’s smile was larger than ever as he regarded each of them. “Am I right?”
Neither of them replied, and Powell knew Bellex was right. Damn, he’s good.
“Gentlemen—the purpose of this meeting is to find their physical location. Get Tetsu into the dissonance, and we’ll take it from there.”
“And then we get paid.” Blackwater shifted his position.
“And you give me my AI back,” Clockwork said,
Powell watched as Bellex focused on the rigger. “Of course.”
But that didn’t seem to satisfy Clockwork. The drone abruptly moved in front of Bellex. “I want to see what it is you’re going to do.”
“Going to do?”
“All this talk about dissonance and resonance. The only thing I see is a host full of corrupted code. Half of this environment isn’t even working. This place is falling apart.”
Bellex’s smile returned. “You would like to see what it is a technomancer sees? You? Have I been reading you wrong? I thought you were prejudiced against them.”
“I don’t trust ’em. There’s something wrong with a mind that can get into the Matrix with just a thought. It ain’t natural.”
“Ah…but what exactly is natural, Clock? Someone born, or someone made? Someone whose physiology suddenly changes through no fault of their own, rendering their previous life, a life they’d grown accustomed to, void? Or someone whose own family discarded them because they became too ugly to look at?”
Powell tensed just a bit as he watched the drone. It was hard to tell what the person behind the persona was feeling when it hid behind a metal shell. Maybe this was why the rigger chose the drone. An uncaring, unfeeling, and unemotional mechanical device.
“I am sorry, Clock,” Bellex said, his smile on full wattage as he continued. “But the only way to see what a technomancer sees is to be one, and right now, we don’t know what makes them what they are, much less how to create one. But wouldn’t that be a great piece of know-how?” The CEO switched to a serious face. “Just do what you’re being paid to do. Lure him to where you were told, but do not try to kill him. And once we have him in our care, you’re both free to do what you want with your reward.”
Bellex disappeared.
The drone hovered in the air for a few seconds before it turned its one camera eye on Powell. “I just figured out Bellex’s secret.”
“Secret?” Powell smirked. “It’s never been a secret, Mr. Clockwork. It’s just taken you a bit longer to see the truth than I thought it would. You who possesses an AI as a pet.”
Blackwater looked from Clockwork to Powell. “What secret?”
The drone’s sides split, and it extended two spindled arms as it turned that camera eye on Blackwater. “Bellex is an AI, Cole. Contagion Games is run by a goddamn AI.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Shayla’s Shinobi
Two Blocks from Target Warehouse
Silk checked and rechecked her gun, her ammo, and her RCC. She had it and her commlink in a bag at her hip, wires ready for insertion the second Shayla needed her.
They were lucky to have found Powell and the others—but instead of just storming in, Mack and Delaney had come up with the idea of keeping them busy in the Matrix while they snuck in the back door.
That is, if Slamm-0! found a back door. He sat on her right, and had been working at hacking the warehouse host for half an hour. Luckily, no alarms had been raised. That they knew of.
Preacher and Renault had been let out a half-kilometer away. They were now in the shadows of a nearby warehouse, providing overwatch and backup for the insertion team. Mack, Delaney, and Moonshine were with Kazuma back at Mack’s place—and Silk still wasn’t sure where that was since they insisted she be blindfolded on their way out.
The plan was for the exchange meeting to start and Mack, MoonShine, Delaney, and Kazuma would log into the host and meet with Blackwater and Clockwork. When they got the signal—and Silk hoped someone knew what that was, because she didn’t—and Slamm-0! got them into the warehouse, they were going to unplug the two of them, grab Netcat, and Delaney would would have the PCC backup, already on standby, swoop in.
It all sounded so easy.
Which meant it was all going to go to hell.
Silk was confused as to what Slamm-0! was doing.
Oh. She knew that.
He went still again, and she watched as his hands moved over the buttons and knobs of the cyberdeck in his lap. The wiring looked odd to her, having mostly grown up in a wireless world. But she understood the principle, of how the wires connected him to the cyberdeck, and the wireless connection of the cyberdeck got him into the host.
Now it was a waiting game again, and she checked the chronometer in her AR.
The meeting had already started.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Contagion UV Host
Kazuma rezzed into w
hat looked like a foyer of some kind, or the lobby of a corporation. In front of him were plaques on the wall with headers like Character App, Play Rules, Backstory, Character Creation. He turned to the right and saw a place to grab an Observer tag for those not wanting to jump into the game just yet.
Mack rezzed in just behind him. Kazuma thought it was funny that the shadowrunner’s persona was a gunslinger, complete with ivory-handled pistols and spurs on his boots.
MoonShine came next, appearing as a huge, white panther. His shoulders came to Kazuma’s chest. “I’m not sure they grow that big,” he commented as he reached out and scratched MoonShine behind the ear.
“Mine does.”
Delaney was last, her persona eliciting a wolf whistle from Mack, and drawing a mock glare from her in return. As a tall, buxom, blonde woman wearing a tight fitting tank top, short-shorts with guns at her hips, and combat boots, she looked like the standard stock tough-girl persona Kazuma had often seen before.
“I guess this is the welcome area?” she asked while walking into the lobby. “Characters…yeah, they got technomancers on the menu.”
Mack pointed to a map on their left. “Looks like the host’s empty.”
“It’s been shut down for half a day. Apparently it crashed again, and Bellex was back in the media.” Kazuma approached a teleporting pad. “I’m also assuming we have to teleport down.”
“I don’t like this,” Delaney said.
“No one here does,” MoonShine growled.
“You hear from Slamm-0! yet?” Kazuma asked.
“He’s halfway there. Soon as we have a go, we’re a go.” He nodded his Stetson-clad head toward the pad. “After you, Red Ninja.”
Kazuma smiled. I should have taken that as my handle. He stepped up on the pad, his hand on the katana on his back as the lobby and the others disappeared.
He landed just outside of a park, and his stomach immediately twisted in on itself. His head pounded, and overwhelming nausea forced him to his knees. He knew immediately the host was badly corrupted.
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